Zurich Chess challenge 2015 - Round 2

Opening: A07, D97, C65: English: Neo-Catalan declined, Grunfeld: Russian, Ruy Lopez: Berlin defense

Player(s): Anand, Aronian, Nakamura, Karjakin, Kramnik, Caruana

GM Lars Bo Hansen recaps Round 2. Vishy Anand is back. Today he won a great game vs. Aronian, to join Nakamura on top of the standings after two rounds. With the score system used in Zurich, the two super-GMs now lead together with 3 points out of 4. One point behind Vladimir Kramnik and Sergey Karjakin. Caruana and Aronian close the list with 1 point. Three rounds to go, so nothing is decided yet, and the rest of the tournament promises to be very interesting. Today Hikaru Nakamura had to draw fully from his defending skill to equalize his game against Kramnik, one of the most powerful positional players of all time. Right after the opening - a Neo-Catalan declined in the English scheme - Naka found himself without any initiative, fighting to stay in the game. He managed to play very precisly, to draw a complicated game. Karjakin vs. Caruana was an enthralling game, with the two foes getting close to time control in a time scramble. They played well, despite the clocks ticking away sinisterly, and drew right after the 40th move. An interesting and well fought round!